You lay ten coins in a row and set a friend a challenge: make five piles of two, but every coin must jump over exactly two coins to land on another. They try and try, and the coins get stuck. Then you do it in five quick jumps.
✨ Level 2: Conjurer
⏱ 10 minutes to learn
🪙 Coins
🎒 Ages 8+
A bit of setting up, or ten to twenty minutes of practice.
👶 Small parts! Keep them away from little brothers and sisters, and never put one in your mouth.👶 Coins are a choking risk for little ones under 4: keep them off the floor and out of small hands.
Magicians use secrets. Some secrets are hidden objects, some are special ways of holding things, and some are clever maths. The biggest secret of all is attention: a magician gets you to look at one thing while the secret happens somewhere else. Then they practise until it looks like nothing at all.
How long does it take to learn a magic trick?
An easy trick takes five or ten minutes. A trick with a secret move takes a few days of practice. Here's the rule magicians use: practise until you can do it ten times in a row without looking at your hands, and then perform it.
You lay ten coins in a row and set a friend a challenge: make five piles of two, but every coin must jump over exactly two coins to land on another. They try and try, and the coins get stuck. Then you do it in five quick jumps. It's a level 2 conjurer trick for ages 8 to 13 (grades 3rd–7th), takes 10 minutes to learn, and needs one thing you already have. Flick, the shop's rabbit, reads every step aloud with a picture, so a child can follow it alone.
The secret
There is one neat answer, and you learn it: 4 onto 1, 7 onto 3, 5 onto 9, 2 onto 6, and 8 onto 10. A pile of two counts as two coins when something jumps over it.
What you need
A coin
How to do it
Lay ten coins in a straight row, a finger's width apart.
Set the challenge: five piles of two, and each move jumps one coin over exactly two others.
Let your friend try for a while. It is much harder than it looks.
Then show them. Number the coins 1 to 10 from the left, in your head.
Jump coin 4 onto coin 1, then coin 7 onto coin 3.
Jump coin 5 onto coin 9. A pile counts as two coins when you jump over it.
Jump coin 2 onto coin 6, then coin 8 onto coin 10. Five piles of two!
Magic words to say
“Ten coins, five piles, one rule: jump exactly two. I'll give you a minute… No? Watch closely, then.”
Pro tips
Learn the five jumps as a rhyme: four on one, seven on three, five on nine, two on six, eight on ten.
Count the two coins out loud on every jump, so everybody can see you are keeping the rule.
Let them have a few goes first. The longer it seems impossible, the better your five jumps look.
If something goes wrong
If you lose your place, slide the coins back into a row and start again from the first jump. The challenge is half the fun.
Safety notes
Small parts! Keep them away from little brothers and sisters, and never put one in your mouth.
Coins are a choking risk for little ones under 4: keep them off the floor and out of small hands.
Needs a helper.
Sit at a table.
No fire, no flames and nothing sharp in a child's hand anywhere in the Magic Shop. Nothing ever goes in a mouth, a nose or an ear.
Why it works
Every jump needs exactly two coins in between, so the order matters. The first two jumps build piles at 1 and 3, and the later jumps count a pile as two, which is how coin 2 can reach coin 6. Most people jump neighbours first and leave gaps nobody can cross.
What kind of trick is this?
🌈 Transformation. Something changes into something else. Almost every trick ever invented is one of eight kinds, and knowing which one you're watching is how magicians work out how a new trick is done.
The skill it teaches:Practise like a pro. Ready means ten times in a row without looking at your hands. Perform it and it counts towards the Coin Conjurer badge.
Questions about the ten coin jump
How do magicians do their tricks?
Magicians use secrets. Some secrets are hidden objects, some are special ways of holding things, and some are clever maths. The biggest secret of all is attention: a magician gets you to look at one thing while the secret happens somewhere else. Then they practise until it looks like nothing at all.
How long does it take to learn a magic trick?
An easy trick takes five or ten minutes. A trick with a secret move takes a few days of practice. Here's the rule magicians use: practise until you can do it ten times in a row without looking at your hands, and then perform it.